Alan Bock's Blog, Writer for the Orange County Register, and author of Waiting to Inhale, and Ambush at Ruby Ridge

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

State of the Onion

Here's a link to a fact sheet prepared by the White House on tonight's State of the Union speech. I participated in another conference call with White House counselor Dan Bartlett (he seems to be the one they throw to the secondary-market newspaper wolves) earlier today.

The gist: It will be about 50/50 foreign and domestic policy. Foreign policy will be pretty much what it has been -- another effort to sell the surge, increasing the military by 92,000.

On domestic policy, it's likely to be:

Energy: More ethanol. Quintuping the taxpayers' bet on abopondoggle that doesn't conserve energy or improve the environment but fattens Midwestern corn farmers.Health Care: This convoluted proposal whereby health insurance is taxable income if you get it from an employer, but there's a standard deduction for health insurance, under which a lot of people might come out ahead. Interesting but not likely to go anywhere in Congress.Education: "Strengthening and improving" rather than repealing the misbegotten No Child Left Behind Act.Immigration: The usual Bushwa -- more border enforcement, guest worker, path to citizenship ("without animosity or amnesty," not a bad phrase). Maybe with Democrats but dubious.